Competition Between the Great Tit and the Blue Tit Outside the Breeding Season in Field Experiments

Ecology ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 61 (6) ◽  
pp. 1291-1296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre A. Dhondt ◽  
Roman Eyckerman
Keyword(s):  
Breeding Season ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Great Tit ◽  
Blue Tit

scholarly journals Different Seasonal Patterns in Song System Volume in Willow Tits and Great Tits

2016 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 265-274
Author(s):  
Georgia K. Longmoor ◽  
C. Henrik Lange ◽  
Hannah Darvell ◽  
Lauren Walker ◽  
Seppo Rytkönen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breeding Season ◽  
Seasonal Changes ◽  
Great Tit ◽  
Seasonal Patterns ◽  
Main Role ◽  
Blue Tit ◽  
Song System ◽  
Willow Tit ◽  
Area X

In most species of seasonally breeding songbirds studied to date, the brain areas that control singing (i.e. the song control system, SCS) are larger during the breeding season than at other times of the year. In the family of titmice and chickadees (Paridae), one species, the blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), shows the typical pattern of seasonal changes, while another species, the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), shows, at best, very reduced seasonal changes in the SCS. To test whether this pattern holds up in the two Parid lineages to which these two species belong, and to rule out that the differences in seasonal patterns observed were due to differences in geography or laboratory, we compared the seasonal patterns in two song system nuclei volumes (HVC and Area X) in willow tits (Poecile montanus), closely related to black-capped chickadees, and in great tits (Parus major), more closely related to blue tits, from the same area around Oulu, Finland. Both species had larger gonads in spring than during the rest of the year. Great tit males had a larger HVC in spring than at other times of the year, but their Area X did not change in size. Willow tits showed no seasonal change in HVC or Area X size, despite having much larger gonads in spring than the great tits. Our findings suggest that the song system of willow tits and their relatives may be involved in learning and producing nonsong social vocalizations. Since these vocalizations are used year-round, there may be a year-round demand on the song system. The great tit and blue tit HVC may change seasonally because the demand is only placed on the song system during the breeding season, since they only produce learned vocalizations during this time. We suggest that changes were not observed in Area X because its main role is in song learning, and there is evidence that great tits do not learn new songs after their first year of life. Further study is required to determine whether our hypothesis about the role of the song system in the learned, nonsong vocalizations of the willow tit and chickadee is correct, and to test our hypothesis about the role of Area X in the great tit song system.

Local Temperature and not Latitude Determines the Design of Blue Tit and Great Tit nests

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 203-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Charles Deeming ◽  
Mark C. Mainwaring ◽  
Ian R. Hartley ◽  
S. James Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Great Tit ◽  
Local Temperature ◽  
Blue Tit

Evaluation of biochemical effects related to perfluorooctane sulfonic acid exposure in organohalogen-contaminated great tit (Parus major) and blue tit (Parus caeruleus) nestlings

Chemosphere ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 61 (11) ◽  
pp. 1558-1569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Tony Hoff ◽  
Kristin Van de Vijver ◽  
Tom Dauwe ◽  
Adrian Covaci ◽  
Johan Maervoet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sulfonic Acid ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Great Tit ◽  
Acid Exposure ◽  
Parus Caeruleus ◽  
Blue Tit ◽  
Biochemical Effects

On the phylogenetics and population differentiation of the Great Tit and Blue Tit in Jordan

2007 ◽  
Vol 148 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fares Khoury ◽  
Joseph Azar ◽  
Laura Kvist
Keyword(s):  
Population Differentiation ◽  
Great Tit ◽  
Blue Tit

Reproductive strategy and singing activity: blue tit and great tit compared

2008 ◽  
Vol 62 (10) ◽  
pp. 1633-1641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentin Amrhein ◽  
Lars Erik Johannessen ◽  
Lena Kristiansen ◽  
Tore Slagsvold
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Strategy ◽  
Great Tit ◽  
Blue Tit ◽  
Singing Activity

scholarly journals Seasonal and Diurnal Body-Mass Fluctuations for two Nonhoarding Species of Parus in Sweden Modeled Using Path Analysis

The Auk ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 658-668
Author(s):  
Pekka T. Rintamäkt ◽  
Jon R. Stone ◽  
Arne Lundberg
Keyword(s):  
Path Analysis ◽  
Predation Risk ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Great Tit ◽  
Energy Reserves ◽  
Blue Tit ◽  
Passerine Species ◽  
State Dependent ◽  
Mass Dependent ◽  
Winter Fattening

Abstract According to the hypothesis that has been invoked most frequently to explain seasonal fattening patterns for birds—the “adaptive winter-fattening hypothesis”—individuals respond to worsening foraging conditions by increasing body mass and energy reserves. Two hypotheses have been proposed equally frequently to explain daily weight gain patterns for birds: according to the “state-dependent foraging hypothesis,” energy reserves should be amassed early during the day, when starvation risk increases; according to the “mass-dependent predation-risk hypothesis,” mass gain should be delayed for as long as possible, to minimize predation risk. Those hypotheses have been tested previously, using statistical methods (e.g. multiple-regression analysis) that assume independence among environmental variables (e.g. photoperiod and temperature). We conducted path analyses that included four predictor variables (day-in-season, hour-in-day, mean daily temperature, and daily precipitation) to model body-mass fluctuations for two small, nonhoarding (noncaching) passerine species that inhabit central eastern Sweden. Data were partitioned hierarchically into species, age class, gender, and season subgroups. As reported in many small passerine species studies, body mass increased during the day and maximized at dusk; over seasons, body mass increased during autumn, maximized by midwinter, and declined toward breeding in spring. Path analysis models accounted for 9.5–49.9% (mean 26.3%) for Blue Tit (Parus caeruleus) body mass variance and 1.8–52.3% (mean 16.8%) for Great Tit (P. major) body mass variance; for both species, accountability was lowest for autumn (Blue Tit,12.2%; Great Tit, 7.3%), highest for winter (Blue Tit, 33.4%; Great Tit, 21.9%), and intermediate for spring (Blue Tit, 22.7%; Great Tit, 11.8%); for Blue Tits, it was greater for adults than for juveniles (33.2 and 21.7%); whereas negligible for Great Tits (15.9 and 17.3%) and slightly greater for males than for females (Blue Tit, 27.4 and 23.5%; Great Tit, 23.1 and 21.3%). Those results are consistent with predictions formulated on the basis of the adaptive winter-fattening, partially with state-dependent foraging, and, possibly, mass-dependent predation-risk hypothesies and reveal that body-mass fluctuations are associated to a greater extent with photoperiod than with temperature.

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